By The Associated Press

CHEYENNE - Electricity generated by Wyoming wind farms offers the cheapest renewable energy for growing areas in the southwestern United States, according to a new study.

The report says more than half of the country's best quality wind resources are located in Wyoming.

The energy evaluation was prepared by National Grid and Energy Strategies, a London-based transmission and utility firm.

The analysis confirms what Ed Werner, executive director of the Wyoming Wind Working Group, has believed for years.

Elected officials must decide how they will meet clean energy demands as states develop renewable portfolio standards, which require a certain percentage of electricity sales to come from renewable resources, Werner said.

For example, California set a requirement of 20 percent by 2010.

He added that the National Grid report combines information on who needs clean energy and who can produce it.

The West is the fastest-growing region in the United States. It also is expected to grow by more than 45 percent between 2000 and 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But not every state can produce thousands of megawatts of clean electricity, Werner said.

The challenge is especially difficult for some of the fastest-growing states, such as Nevada and Arizona. The western United States will require 116,000 gigawatt hours of energy each year.

Werner said this creates opportunities for Wyoming to become a serious energy exporter.

The next challenge is to provide the transmission lines to deliver this product to energy customers.

Wyoming already has the wind and the space for turbines, but needs power lines to transport the electricity, said Jonathan Naughton, director of the University of Wyoming's Wind Energy Center.

Naughton said the TransWest Express power transmission project will help. The proposed project seeks to build a $3 billion, 3,000-megawatt high-voltage transmission line that stretches 900 miles. The link will connect southern Wyoming wind farms with sites in California, Nevada and Arizona. The project is slated for completion in 2014.

Meanwhile, the Power Company of Wyoming is developing a 2,000-megawatt wind farm in Carbon County.

Naughton said the wind farm is large enough to use at least half of the capacity of the TransWest line.

Copyright © 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Published on Monday, August 04, 2008.
Last modified on 8/4/2008 at 12:29 am

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